OTIS
Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest and oldest manufacturer of elevators. The company was founded in 1854, in New York, USA by Elisha Otis, who famously invented the safety mechanism of the elevator should the hoisting rope break. Otis have been making Lifts in New Zealand longer than anybody else. it is impossible to say when Otis first started making lifts here, but the oldest ones I have found so far are from around the 1920's-1930's. Otis has always been massive in New Zealand, as from the 1920's up until the 1970's-80's the only major competitor was Express. It wasn't until KONE and Schindler became bis in the 80's and 90's that Otis found big competition. Today, Schindler is top-dog, while Otis comes a close second. 1900's-1920's - Bird Cage The early Otis lifts in New Zealand were metal cages with manually operated gates. Some of these early lifts would have been manually controlled, but many were later converted to automatic operation (pushing a button). In the 1920's, Otis were using their classic black push buttons which were used until the 1970's. These lifts were only Single Speed. Cage1.jpg|Classic Otis cage lift ButtonsWGO.png|Tradional Otis Black Buttons (Photo by WayGoodOtis) __________________________________________________________________________________ 1930's - Waygood-Otis In 1914, Otis aquired UK-based company Waygood & Co. and int he 1930's, the two made elevators in several countries under the joint name Waygood-Otis. Under this name, they made both Gated Lifts and Lifts with Automatic Doors. Otis dropped "Waygood" from the name in 1935, continuing on as just "Otis". The 1930's also saw the introduction of Leveling lifts, as opposed to single-Speed (which Otis still made until the 1940's) Gated Lifts: By the 1930's, Gated lifts now had a fully enclosed cab, and the shaft gate had been replaced by a manually operated door. Gated1.png Gated2.png Gated4.png Gated3.png ______________________________________________________________________ Lifts with Automatic doors: Otis developed the first lifts with Automatic doors in the 1920's, however they didn't make it to New Zealand until the 1930's. Sadly, I have not been able to find one in it's original condition. The closest I can ind is this one, which was modernized by Otis in the 1960's. The buttons are almost identical to the original ones and the floor indicator is a 1960's addition. _____________________________________________________________________ Last gated lifts The very last gated Otis passenger lifts would have been made around the 30's-40's. These were generally the same as those made previously, but now features a gate that would open and close automatically. This was also around the time when Otis gen making floor indicators. These are simply metal strips with each floor listed, and each number or letter had a bulb behind it that would illuminate it when the lift was at that floor. Buttons.png|Photo by WaygoodOtis Gates.png Indicator.png ____________________________________________________________________ 40's - 50's: Automatic Lifts in the 1940's and 1950's, Otis continually made automatic passenger lifts. In this era, Otis still made a few single speed lifts, but by the 50's all of their lifts had leveling. These lifts continued the trend of black buttons and the traditional floor indicator (which some lifts did not have). GreenDoors.png Buttons1.png Buttons2.png FloorIndicator.png __________________________________________________________________________________ 1960's 1960's Otis lifts are surprising still very common. By this time, Floor Indicators were standard, a lot of lifts were much faster and the cab designs were starting to look more passenger friendly, as opposed to looking very industrial. On a design front, the lifts still looked a lot like those from the 50's, continuing to use the traditional black buttons. Blue.jpg Call.jpg Buttons.jpg Cabdesign.jpg DirectionalArrows.jpg Floorindicatornormal.png Outside.jpg Cab60otis.jpg floordisplaynoplastic.jpg ____________________________________________________________________________ 60's-70's: Budget Design Otis made a VERY rare budget design of lift in the 60's and 70's. These lifts had a basic cab, white buttons and no floor indicator. ButtonsInside.png|Photo by WaygoodOtis Call.png|Photo by WaygoodOtis ___________________________________________________________________ 1970's: Lexan Design The 1970's saw Otis design make some changes. The lifts of the 70's had new motors and logic designs, and also featured a new button design. The design used was Otis's American fixture line, called "Lexan". These were the first ever Otis buttons to light up when pressed. They featured a halo around the outside of a black push button that lit up orange when pressed. The early Lexan lifts used the same floor indicator as the 1960's, but later this changed to one with illuminating squares instead. In the late 70's, Otis switched to using Digital floor indicators. These were either Orange Segments displays (Asian Design) or Green LED Displays (Australian Design). GreenLifts.jpg CallButtonsLexan.jpg ButtonsLexan.png ButtonsLexan2.png OldIndicator.png Squareindicator.png SegmentInside.jpg LEDlexan.png ExtIndi.jpg ArrowsOut.jpg SegmentOutside.jpg ____________________________________________________________________